Blog for the RepRap project at www.reprap.org - a project to create an open-source self-copying 3D printer.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Make More RepRaps...

Interestingly, Cubify has belatedly added a free download section. I haven't checked the licence conditions, but - unless they are silly - I think that it would be a good idea to upload as many RepRap designs as possible for printing on 3D Systems printers...

I just took a look at their full download selection. The first thing that jumped out at me was the "Animated Explosion FX" model. Then I noticed all the textured models and read a few descriptions.

None of these models have been created for 3D printers. Looks like they just scraped a 3D animation site and dumped the results into their store.

Many of these won't print at all. The explosion for example is a well known effect that involves no actual geometry. I suspect most of the rest would require a significant amount of editing first. Not to mention that much of the details are the results of image maps and not geometry or deformation.

God help the 3D printing community if Cubify actually gets some real press. The backlash would taint the public perception of 3D printing for the next decade.

Although is someone has $25 sitting around I'd suggest ordering a print of the explosion from them. Love to see what they say about it.

They are showing up late to the desktop 3D printing business even though 3D systems practically invented the tech. If it weren't for Reprap pushing the tech out exponentially, they would have never felt the pressure to make a desktop printer. Now, they up sell the feedstock like crazy. What is it? $200 for 2 lbs of ABS? Nuts. What I hate the most is that they slander the Reprap tech as being too complicated and unreliable. Where are they going to take their Cube printer? Best Buy’s Geek Squad? Please…

But how much better than attacking them would be treat them as a rather dumb resource? If we were to flood their site with RepRap stuff that actually does print, and that makes RepRaps in their machines, that would surely be much more entertaining?

Update: I uploaded the STLs for RepRap Huxley and flagged it as free. For some reason it has not yet appeared in their searches :-)

I believe some of those effects on the cubify site like the Explosion are just models that once you buy you can download. I just went through the purchasing process without actually finishing and it informed me I was purchasing a digital model NOT a physical printed object.